Most days in Auradon were sunny, beautiful and it seemed as though nature was smiling down on the world. Unfortunately, it was not one of those days. Well, some would say unfortunately. Everyone knew at least one person in their lives who liked the rain that was pouring down from the heavens at that moment. Everyone had that one friend or relative or co-worker that they would call strange for enjoying the wet and the cold. One small family would have no problem telling people that this strange person in their household was the woman of the house.
Her husband, although he loved how happy she looked when the rain fell, would refuse to join her in the rain unless absolutely necessary and when she came in, he'd send her to get dry and warm, sometimes even running her a hot bath as he always feared she may get ill. The days that she was in a playful mood, however, often seemed to end up with her arms wrapped around his squirming body as the water in her clothes seeped through his own.
Whenever this happened, it was guaranteed that any child of theirs in the vicinity would roll their eyes and wonder why their parents acted so childish. Their children were like their father in the sense that they weren't big fans of rain. Their son said it was because, whilst he didn't mind getting wet, he did not like the uncontrollable pelting from the sky, completely out of his control. Their daughter complained that rain was too cold and it made her clothes heavy and her make-up run.
Unfortunately for her, she'd been caught out on this particular day and so entered her house looking like a drowned rat.
"Ugh!" She complained as she kicked her boots off. "I hate the rain!"
Her mother poked her head around the door of the kitchen, her eyebrow raised, "I told you to bring an umbrella, Shay. Come on, dinner is ready in fifteen, so go get something dry on."
Shay rolled her eyes, "Nah, I was just planning on staying in these soaking, wet clothes."
"Don't talk to your mother like that." Her father appeared at the base of the stairs, "And if you'd listened to her in the first place, maybe you wouldn't be in sopping, wet clothes." Shay huffed in annoyance but refrained from rolling her eyes again. "On you get, lassie."
"I ain't a lassie any more," she grumbled but obeyed.
As she began to climb the stairs, her dad chuckled, "You'll always be my wee lassie." Shay shot him a glare but that only widened his grin, "Hurry up. It's your turn to set the table."
"Fine," she sighed and hurried upstairs. After changing into a red, knot-front shirt and a pair of black jeans, she tied her wet hair in a long, high pony-tail and fixed her make-up. Then she headed downstairs to start setting the table. Dinner was ready soon after and everyone was sat at the table, parents on one side, kids across from them. They chatted as they ate, talking about this, that and everything, as they always did. There was teasing and laughing and eye-rolling.
Shay felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and pulled it out.
"Oh, Shay, no phones at the table. You know the rule," Uma sighed.
"Who ya texting?" Tommy asked, nosily looking over her shoulder.
"Piss off, will you?" Shay replied, pulling her phone away from her brother.
Harry gave them both a look, "Shay, phone away. Tommy, how would you like it if I was nosing about every time you tried to text someone?"
Tommy went frowned and mumbled a half-hearted apology whilst still side-eyeing his sister, who was still on her phone.
"Shay," both parents warned at the same time.
"Okay, okay!" Shay responded, putting her phone down on the table, "I was just answering a friend's question!"
The phone vibrated and lit up, showing a notification. Before Shay had a chance to pull it away, Tommy looked down at the screen and saw the name, "Who's Jax? And why does he have, like, a thousand hearts behind his name?"
"Mind your own business!" Shay exclaimed, picking up her phone and slipping it into her pocket.
Uma furrowed her brow in thought, "Is Jax your boyfriend?" Her face suddenly lit up with a smile.
"Her what?" Harry demanded, "Nope. Can't be. She's only fourteen!"
"I'll be fifteen in the fall!" Shay protested, "and so what if he is my boyfriend?"
Harry looked over to Uma for help but she just shrugged. "Because boys at your age just break girls' hearts!" he finally said, looking over at his daughter with frustration.
"Woah, hey!" Tommy exclaimed, looking at his dad offended, "I think she's too young too but come on, that's not fair. Not all boys are like that."
"Give it up, boys," Uma said, wishing she hadn't asked, "No amount of arguing is going to change Shay's mind. So," she leaned forward with a little grin, "When do we get to meet the lucky guy?"
Shay smiled back at her mum, despite the spluttering of anger from her dad and brother, "And risk scaring him off? Not a chance."
"Oh, come on. I'll make sure the boys behave. Have him come round!" Uma exclaimed with excitement, "We can have him for dinner tomorrow. And if he runs because of us, he probably wasn't the right guy anyway."
"Again, she's fourteen! He's not going to be right guy! She's not even in high school yet."
Shay folded her arms, "I start in September," she grumbled, "And Jax is only a year ahead of me."
"Oh, great," Harry moaned, "So she's dating a high-school student!"
"Harry, we get it!" Uma exclaimed, now annoyed at her husband's constant comments. "Chill!" She matched the small glare that her husband sent her then turned back to Shay, "Okay, your father and I don't agree on much when it comes to the love lives of our children but dating a high-school student? Honey, that's a little..."
"Wrong?" Harry offered.
Uma shook her head, "It's not wrong, Harry. There will only be a year between them at most," Uma reminded him, "And I was going to say 'worrying'."
Shay sighed, knowing why her parents were concerned, "Look, he was a summer baby, so he's only a few months older than me. It's not as bad as you think. If he'd been a month younger, we'd be in the same year. And the fact that he's in high school hasn't really bothered us yet. We only got together a few weeks ago at that youth club Aunty CJ runs in the summer. And by the time school starts, I'll be in high school so it won't be a power thing if that's you're worried about."
Harry huffed which caused Uma to give him a slightly exasperated look, "Harry, please. As long as they're sensible and he's good to her, there is no reason why they shouldn't be together." Uma held Harry's gaze for a while before he relented and nodded.
"Fine. Why don't you text him and ask him to come to dinner tomorrow?" It was said through gritted teeth but Shay smiled, knowing it was a big step for her dad to be willing to meet Jax.
"Thanks, Daddy," she said. Harry's tight smile relaxed a little and Uma shook her head lightly with a fond smile spreading across her face. Shay excitedly began digging her phone out of the pocket of her jeans.
"After dinner," he added, "Still no phone at the table."
Shay sighed in annoyance but went back to her dinner. The conversations continued, with many questions about Jax from Uma, which Shay tried to answer with as few words as possible, not wanting to push her luck with her dad and her brother.
The next day came super quickly and Shay was soon pacing the living room as she waited for Jax to arrive. She tapped her phone against her leg, checking the clock and looking out of the window every few seconds. It was a huge relief for the whole family when Shay spotted Jax and ran to the door. Harry was right behind her.
Shay opened the door before Jax had the chance to ring the doorbell. "Hey!" she exclaimed and hugged him around his neck. Jax smiled and hugged her back before giving her a gentle peck. The moment his lips touched Shay's, Harry cleared his throat loudly, making Jax jump and Shay roll her eyes before letting go of him and turning to her dad with a smile. "Jax, this is my dad." She then put her hand in Jax's, "And Daddy, this is Jax, my boyfriend."
Jax extended the hand that wasn't in Shay's. "Nice to meet you, sir." Harry didn't say anything but gave him a hard stare before gripping his hand hard enough to hurt him then letting go. Jax gulped as he pulled his hand back.
"Come on," Shay pulled Jax inside, getting her dad to move out of the way. "Mom has been dying to meet you since I told her about you yesterday."
"Was that a flying carpet I saw outside?" Jax jumped and looked at Harry who had finally spoken.
"Yes, sir. My mother flew me here. I'm learning but I haven't got my license yet."
"You're from Agrabah?" Uma asked as she emerged from the living room, gesturing everybody in.
"My family is but we live in Towering Heights." Jax replied, "Oh, sorry, I'm Jax." He shook Uma's hand.
"Uma." She gestured for them to sit.
Shay took a seat and pulled Jax down next to her. Jax entwined his hand with hers. He looked up and caught Tommy, who was in the living room when they'd come in, glaring at him, so he smirked and put his arm around Shay. This made Tommy glower at him even more but Jax didn't care. That was until he saw that Harry had a face matching his son's.
As he attempted to remove his arm from Shay's shoulders, she pulled his arm back and sent a menacing look right back to her father and brother. No one seemed to want to back down and Jax just sat there uncomfortably, whilst Uma crossed her arms, tapping her fingers of one of her hands on the opposite arm.
"Okay, enough," she finally said after a while, "Harry, why don't you go check on dinner? Tommy, Shay, go set the table please."
Shay looked at her mom confused as the other two dropped their glares and obeyed, "Wha-me? Mom!" She flicked her head towards Jax, to point out that it was her guest in the house.
"Shay," Uma warned lightly. Shay huffed but got up and followed Harry and Tommy out of the room. "I'm sorry about that," she said, turning to Jax.
Jax managed a weak smile, "Yeah, no problem. Though the way they were glaring at me, you'd think I was feeling her up or someth..." he trailed off when Uma raised her eyebrow at him, "Sorry. Inappropriate joke. Mom says I do that a lot."
Uma hummed lightly before leaning towards Jax a bit, "Look, let me tell you something. My husband and my son are overprotective of my daughter, any blind fool could see that. But we're a very close family. We look out for one another. We care about each other. So if you so much as lay a finger wrong, we will not tolerate that and you'll be out of our life within seconds. And I can't promise that it'll be unharmed. So you'd better look after her."
Jax gulped and nodded, "Yes, ma'am."
Uma nodded, "Good, so we understand each other."
There was suddenly a call from the kitchen, saying that dinner was ready. Uma smiled and stood up, Jax following. "So, tell me a bit about yourself." Her stance was friendly, any sign of the warning disappeared from her face. Jax relaxed as he followed her into the dining room where the other three were sat, the children poking fun at their dad, who had nearly burnt the food, apparently.
The atmosphere after that was one that was light-hearted and fun. Though he still felt a little out of place, Jax didn't feel unwelcome. There was something about this family. It was small in size but large in spirit and heart. And that, despite it being nowhere near perfect, is what made this family such a beautiful thing.
Here you go Owllover34! Hope you liked it :) Thanks for continuously letting me use Shay, Tommy and Jax. Sorry that I keep forgetting to credit them to you.
Request Count Down: 46
Response to Reviews:
kbear100: Aww, thank you!
Owllover34: Thank you! And sorry. I hadn't realised. I never got the email telling me a review had been left (I have a tendency to rely on these emails). Thanks for letting me know :)
wildflowerchildGrace: Hope you're feeling better love. Sorry this one wasn't particularly long either :)
Ishy555: (122) Yay! Glad I could do you such a service ;) (123) Spelt it correctly! And she's not mine. Kamryn belongs to Owllover34. But I'm pleased you like her anyway! I quite like her, too.
nyahamilton11: Thank you! And no problem.
Thu: Very possibly ;) And yeah, as much as I would like to believe that they all stay in contact, life happens and it's not unusual for people to drift apart. I like mine to be somewhat realistic.(Keyword being somewhat).
RATQUEEN: (11) Well the point of this oneshot was that she felt like a failure but isn't. I hope you realise the same :) (25) Well, tbh, this was written Christmas 2017, so he hadn't yet. I just figured that they were the homemade gifts kind of people anyway. (57) To be fair, it was a playful kind of thing. It's not uncommon for people to teasingly call each other idiots if they act a little silly sometimes. (74) Well, if you're still unsure, it's something used by people like tightrope walkers and such, to catch them in case they fall, and in this oneshot, Harry essentially 'catches' Uma when she 'falls', the falling being struggling and not being okay and the catching represented by him being there for her.
Gabbi: (13)Yay Mal, indeed.
Angellonna: (23) I love them too!
Kitty 3: (61) I hope it didn't make you too sad. And yeah, he didn't deserve a name (that, and I was too lazy to give him one XD)
Love you guys! SparkyGurl
P.S. Please don't be afraid to leave constructive criticism. It helps me.